A new outsider
by Lost girl 222
Summary: Lauren, or Ren as she is most commonly known as, has just moved to Tulsa all the way from NSW Australia. Her first day at her new school, she is taken in by Ponyboy. This is my first time posting anything so any feedback is much appreciated! please be nice :) should i continue or stop while im ahead...? rated M because if i write future chapters thats what its going to be.


"Are you sure you're gonna be alright?" Margaret asked again before I quickly climbed out of her Chevy Corvette.  
"Yes I'll be fine thanks, Margaret," I replied.  
"Okay then, have a nice day."  
"You too."  
I glumly walked up the stairs leading to the tall building which I would now call my school. Next to the main building there was a smaller one with a large sign reading, 'Front office' on the wall above the doors. I decided to head for the office to sign in. It was my first day and not to mention I was already late, so the office seemed like the way to go.

"Lousy parents," I muttered to myself while climbing the stairs. "Can't even take me to school on my first day." Well it wasn't dad's fault; he was at work after all. But mum, well she had no excuse. All she did was smoke, drink and lay on the couch watching TV all day. Doctors told her she won't live much longer if she keeps up this lifestyle. Her response to them was, "Fuck them! What do they know? I'm fine!" Yeah, sure you are mum. You just had to get our new neighbour, Margaret, who we've only known for a little over a week to drive me to school on my first day because you couldn't get off the lounge but yeah, you're fine. Completely and utterly fine.

I pushed open the doors to the office and told the lady behind the desk who I was.  
"Okay, darlin'. Just take a seat over there for me, alright?" I stared at the plump, red headed woman for a moment before nodding and taking a seat. I only had time to look around the small office for a couple of minutes before the front doors flew open and in walked one of the most perfect looking boys I have ever seen.  
I quickly looked down at myself to see if I looked alright. I was wearing three quarter, khaki coloured pants and sandshoes of the same colour. I was wearing a tight, white singlet top and a necklace with a small gold heart on the end of it. It was the only jewellery I owned at the time and it had been given to me by father when I was a baby. My long, brown, curly hair bounced around the middle of my back and luckily I had remembered to put on mascara this morning, so my deep, blue eyes stood out even more.  
Satisfied with how I looked, I checked out what the boy was wearing. He had on a black, sleeveless top which was tucked into a pair of tight, blue jeans and he had on white sneakers. He had bleach blond hair, beautiful hazel eyes and he looked about my age to top it all off.  
"Hey, Patty. How are ya today?" The boy asked the plump lady before handing her a note.  
"Not bad, Pony, not bad," she replied. Pony? She unfolded the note before rolling her eyes at him. "So tell me, Pony … which excuse is it gonna be today?"  
"Oh no, ma'am, this is no excuse! This is for real!"  
"I'm listening," she said, tapping her fingers impatiently onto the desk.  
"Well ya see, Darry and me, well we decided to drop Soda off at work and then, well ummm … the car! Yeah that's right. The car ran low on gas and ummm …" Patty chuckled.  
"Alright, alright, give it up. Go on, get to class," she laughed. The boy pretended to wipe fake sweat off of his forehead and they both laughed again.  
"Alright, take it easy, Patty," he said and headed for the door.  
Patty turned and made eye contact with me and then her facial expression changed to a mixture of shock and realisation as she remembered that I was still here.  
"Oh, Ponyboy, wait!" she called out to the boy. He spun on his heel.  
"Yeah, what is it?"  
"This is our new student, Lauren," she said gesturing to me. He glanced at me and quickly flashing me a cute grin. "She will be in your classes. Would you mind showing her around, you know, helping her out for the next couple of days until she gets settled in?"  
"Sure thing."  
"Don't worry, Lauren," Patty reassured me. "Ponyboy is a lovely young man." I smiled at her.  
"Come on, Lauren," he said.  
"Ren," I replied.  
"Huh?"  
"You can just call me Ren, everybody does."  
"Oh okay," he said. "Well right this way then, Ren."

We headed out the door and over to a bench where he put his back down and took out a timetable.  
"Okay," he said, running his finger slowly across Monday's schedule. He looked up at me, "We have English first."  
"Yes," I cheered quietly, more to myself but he somehow managed to hear me.  
"What?"  
"I love English. It was my favourite subject back home."  
"Yeah it's my favourite too." I smiled at him. "So where're you from anyway?"  
"Just west of Sydney, Australia."  
"Hey, now that I think about it, I can hear it in your voice." I quickly clamped my hands over my lips, embarrassed.  
"Hey, don't worry about it," he said, pulling my hands away from my mouth. His hands were so soft and warm that when he let go, I was almost disappointed. "It's actually kinda cute." I felt my face heat up quickly and he obviously noticed because he laughed. "Come on, let's go to class. We don't wanna be any more late than we already are," he said and we started walking.  
"You know, you have an accent too," I said after a moment. He looked shocked and I laughed.  
"Well how would you describe my accent? He asked.  
"Kinda cute," I mocked and we both laughed.

We walked into the main building and he lead me pat a long corridor of lockers.  
"So, why'd you move all the way here to Tulsa?"  
"My dad's a pilot, he travels all over the world but he always talked about how much he loved flying to Tulsa. So we decided to move here. I guess it was just one of those 'let's just do it' moments, ya know?" he nodded thoughtfully.  
"So this must feel pretty strange for you, huh? Like I mean, leaving behind everything you're used to and moving to a whole other country."  
"Yeah, it does feel pretty strange," I laughed.  
We both suddenly stopped talking and we walked in silence for a while until finally I couldn't take it anymore.  
"So, that lady in the office, she kept calling you Pony and Ponyboy. What's all that about?"  
"That's my name," he answered bluntly. I stopped in my tracks and stared at him. He turned around and looked at me, smiling. "I know," he said. "Sounds about as fake as my hair looks, huh?" he ran a hand through his greasy blonde hair. I laughed.  
"So your name really is Ponyboy?"  
"Yep, even says so on my birth certificate. I also got a brother called Sodapop."  
"Wow, really?"  
"What don't you like our names?"  
"No, no, I really do! I like Sodapop. Ponyboy's cute too," I smiled and felt my cheeks flush again; kinda wishing I didn't say that. He grinned and we continued walking. We started up some stairs.  
"What's going on with your hair anyway?" I said, running one of my own hands through his greasy hair. He didn't seem to mind me doing that. Thank God, I thought. If I hadn't have done that now, I just would have regretted it later.  
"Well, it's kind of a long story," he said after a few moments. A troubled look spread across his face. "Maybe I'll tell it to you sometime." I smiled.  
"I'd like that."

After we reached the top of the stairs he stopped walked and I turned and looked at him. He had an expression on his face which was half realisation and half confusion. "Wait, were you talking about the colour or all the grease when you asked about my hair just now?" I laughed.  
"The colour," I confirmed. He nodded and began walking again. After a moment I asked: "But what is with all the grease?"  
"Well I'll tell you one thing. This is hair grease. Like, I put it in there myself. It aint cos I haven't washed my hair in a million years."  
"I gathered that," I said. I laughed and so did he but then suddenly he went serious.  
"No, but that, that's another long story." I looked at him confused. "It's cos I'm a greaser. You know what that is?" I shook my head and he laughed. "That's alright. Just another reason for us to hang out after school sometime so I can tell ya all about it," he said putting an arm around my shoulders.  
My heart then started beating so fast and hard I could have sworn it was about to jump out of my chest. A million thoughts raced through my head. Stop it! I told myself. He's only being friendly. He's just trying to make me feel comfortable. He smiled down at me. "You know, I can see us being really good friends, Ren."  
"Yeah me too." But little did he know I had pretty much fallen in love with him already. Is that even possible, I thought. To fall in love with someone who you haven't even known for a full hour? And what about yesterday, when I met that boy, Dally. And I had sworn I loved him even though h was kind of an asshole. Should I tell Ponyboy about Dally? About what he tried to do to me? No, I told myself. I didn't want to pile all my problems onto this boy after only knowing him for a short time. I decided to keep quiet.

We arrived at the classroom. I was about to push open the door when he quickly stopped me.  
"So, Lauren-"  
"Ren."  
"No, I'm called you Lauren! It's such a beautiful name! Why don't you use it?"  
"Now that's a long story," I said, looking down at my feet. .  
"Well, _Lauren_, I think we should hang out this afternoon and exchange these long stories," he smiled. "How's that sound?" I was about to tell him I had other plans when he flashed me that gorgeous smile and it was like I suddenly had no control over my mouth.  
"I'd love to, Ponyboy. Sounds great." He smiled.  
"Okay cool. I'll walk you home and then we can hang out for a bit, yeah?"  
"Okay," I nodded.  
We entered the classroom and after sorting out who I was with the teacher, I sat down in the only spare seat left. Fortunately, my seat was away from Pony's. Not that I didn't want to sit near him or anything. I just needed to be alone for a while. To figure everything out. Because so much had just happened in the time frame of fifteen minutes. How that happened, I will never know.


End file.
